The OPs problem is that the up and down arrow history doesn't work with the default Term::ReadLine::Perl, which is why one needs to install Term::ReadLine::Gnu for cpan (and the debugger) to get up-arrow history access.
I'm not currently in a position to test this, but I will.
In reply to Re^2: Can't use up/down arrow for history in cpan shell
by stevieb
in thread Can't use up/down arrow for history in cpan shell
by TSN
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